Cassian POV

I exhaled slowly, the pressure in my chest mounting like a vice tightening around my lungs. Maelor stood firm, his spine straight with defiance, but I couldn’t walk away without making him understand without laying bare what he refused to see.

"You don’t get it, Maelor," I said, voice taut with a quiet intensity. "There are people out there who would hurt her. That’s why I kept her hidden. You think I wanted to cage her like some possession? Those bastards who sold her to ...